Gooooood evening from Australia 
This doesn't mean we aren't without restrictions such as mask wearing when indoors or for today's post on a tour bus around the werribee zoo which was absolutely marvellous!
The last time I brought Lil Miss 4 here she was 1 and a half years old, she didn't remember visiting but she did remember the bus once we boarded. She was really excited and started shouting "oh yes daddy I remember this bus".
But today along with taking the tour bus across the vast space of land which is something I am really excited about, it's hard seeing animals couped up in cages and you wish they had more space.
Thats just a snippet of the open range zoo and in comparison to Melbourne Zoo that space would fit roughly 2.5 Melbourne Zoos in it.. so this place is huge so huge infact a tour bus takes you around on a 45 minute quick drive so you can see the animals.
But today's post is for the dinosaurs! Werribee Open range Zoo is currently hosting an exhibit until the 2nd of May show casing some if the beasts of the past. Real life replicas of dinosaurs are scattered around the park. Many of them a realistic in look and actually have moving components. From a far they look real and lil miss was so confused, she even tried to feed one some leaves but wasn't sure why it wasn't eating!
She was a little scared to get too close incase they lashed out and bit her, I found this pretty cute and I didn't refute her experience as I wanted her to really enjoy her time at the zoo with dinosaurs.
She was super excited to stumble across a Triceratops with a baby! She warned me not to get too close as the mum will protect the baby and get me with it's horns. She was a lil worried about this one as it reminded her of a rhinoceros.
A significant amount of investment has gone into developing this section of the Werribee River and the Werribee Zoo including the placement of dinosaurs that are hidden amongst shrub.
Coming around the bend the area is silent and all you can hear is birds chirping. You almost miss the enormous T-Rex as it blends into the natural environment, so large you forget to look up.
It moves towards you, lowers it's head and let's out a roar. If it were real we would have been lunch! Well more of a snack for this big bad boy. The replica is a 1:1 ratio of a monster. One that roamed the earth a few million years ago and was the apex preditor.
You can take a seat amongst the beautiful scenery and have a rest before continuing your journey looking for more dinosaurs hidden in the park. The Werribee River is one of the last remaining sanctuaries for Platypus in Victoria. Half mammal half fish, an animal so confusing yet so elusive I am yet to see one in the wild.
We continue our journey in search for more dinosaurs along the path, dad didn't grab a map so I was a little lost at this stage but we continue on the path. All the dinosaurs have sensors so once you get to a certain location they're movement is triggered some designed to frighten others just to graze a mixture of herbivores and carnivorous dinosaurs. It's amazing how frightening carnivors look, did they always look that scary or have we made them look that way? Easily distinguished from a dinosaur that won't kill or eat you.
Although they're all pretty large so they might kill you if trodden on or they get scared of you. It is hard to imagine animals this large being frightened of humans though.
We stumble across what appears to be a normal, boring sand pit however, as lil miss jumps in she feels something hard burried under the sand. She begins digging and she shouts in excitement "dad! Dad! Dad!" Dinosaur bones! The more she digs the more she uncovers more skeletons. Dinosaur fossils. She gives me a history lesson that the area we are standing in used to be home for dinosaurs and when they died their bones fell on the ground and they're now here. That's why when we dig we find dinosaur bones like in the museum.
She's cute and I really enjoy her story, it is created with truth but I didn't tell her that they're not real bones and that it's part of the zoo exhibition.
After our run in with a T-Rex she was pretty frightened and thought it was real. It was pretty cool and I don't know if she's pretending, using her imagination or actually believe they are real, either way I am playing along with her because it's fun and I want her to have a great time.
The Zoo also provides tours for groups and families and will give you information about each dinosaur, unfortunately we missed the last tour and had to go it alone. Lil Miss bumped into a family friend with their daughter and she played for over an hour. I didn't want to take her away too soon and it gave me a good hours break while I sat and had a coffee. These moments as a parent make you feel bad but as a parent you are on 24/7 so you take each moment as you can.
We end our trip riding a wild zebra across the savannah to freedom, like Sheena, Queen of the jungle we're free and survived the many dangers of prehistoric earth. Enlightened by the true size of these now extinct animals and a reminder of how big these animals were. Impressive!
If you're planning a trip to Aus make sure you visit Werribee Open Range Zoo and the wonderful dinosaur exhibit. Entry was $38 full fare and kids under 16 free which was awesome!
Mum saw these photos and we will be back later this week as mum wants to take little Bloke, but really she wants to see the dinosaurs too 🤣